Being Thyself

One common trait that connects many successful people in various disciplines is that they were pursuing their passion and through out their lives they remained their true self.

Hurdles: 
Before blaming others, the first of all one must put major responsibility on him/herself for not being able to be yourself. We take self inflicted, peer, family, social pressures as excuses but if one believes in something these pressures cant really change it. Self inflicted pressures include pressure to impress, fear of failure, conflicting priorities on passion verses needs. As we watch peers pursuing something or traversing a lucrative path in career or life, we get tempted to imitate or follow them, with a fear of looking stupid or a fear of missing the bandwagon.

How ever this doesn't mean the external pressure do not exist. People from orthodox and conservative families get pressure if they try anything out of the ordinary. Social norms of the day prevent at certain times the innovative and path breaking trends. Peer group, at times, will directly or indirectly ridicule if you fail by pursuing the passion. If one is not innately from well-to-do family, he/she faces pressure of earning daily bread and supporting the family as soon as graduation.

Advantages:
Being yourself is less stressful as you continue to pursue the thought process, ideas, reactions that come naturally. It eventually brings out best self out in all the endeavors. Also being yourself makes you feel happy, content and comfortable.

Who is a Friend?

With the advent of facebook revolution, we all are entitled to freinds list exceeding 100s for less social people and exceeding 1000 for social people. Gender will also play a significant role in the number of friends you have on facebook. Old times definition of friend is summarized by statement " A friend in need is a friend indeed!!" Have you ever wondered how many of those 100s of friends in fb list will turn up when you need? If you were to think honestly,  may be 4 or 5 out of 100+ will come to your rescue in toubled times. Then what about other friends in the fb signify ?

Acquaintances - These are the folks whom we know by face and probably have met couple of times on business or personal front. We just want to keep in touch as any social animal would want to.

Relations    - These are next-of-kin who are technically not friends usually spread across various age groups. But some of them could be friends depending on the closeness and affinity.

compulsion friends - Lets take case of a girl who is studying in college or working and she receives a friend request from her lecturer or boss. Even though it is not a hard and fast rule but many a times she accepts it out of compulsion. This explains it.

Benefit friends - We befriend some folks in power with a hope to get some benefit from them or some favors from them in future.

Gravity Friends - Lets take a pretty looking girl or a handsome male, there would be many folks in opposite sex who want to be acquainted at the least and keep sending friend requests. Some like such attention and that explains the huge friends list.

Alumni Friends - For school/college passouts, their alma mater is very close to their heart. They try to keep in touch with the gang who went to school/college.

Courtesy Friends - Be it a neighbor in the place you live or a staff from the place you work, they are your facebook list because you don't want to be rude enough to decline their friend request. They are courtesy friends per me.

Same situation friends - we connect ourselves with people going through similar stage in life like parents of your kid's classmates, your prospective neighbor in apartment you plan to buy.


I would like to conclude that a true friend need not be on your facebook, need not wish you luck on your life events, need not like your pictures/videos shared, need not respond to your status messages but he/she would be there when ever you are in need.  Also don't count your friends by looking at friends list in fb.

Systematic Investment

There are some fundamental principles that can be applied everywhere and they dont fail us. There are many manufacturing principles applied in electronics and then in software and industry benefited from thus. So irrespective of the field of operation, the knowledge and application of such principles are beneficial to us. Here is my 2 cents worth from me on one such principle.

Principle: 
Systematic Investment is one principle that I guess will benefit many of us if applied in our lives. We have heard during childhood slow and steady wins the race. Systematic investment is nothing but a polished version of the moral that is taught to us.

Application: 

Personal Finance: 
Mutual fund industry is vouching on the principle to lure retail investors. Its definitely a win-win for customer as well as the AMC (asset management company ie., Mutual Fund company). Lots of people want to be rich but they want to be rich overnight and keep worrying about the possible jackpot options that can fulfill their dream. Systematic investment is one sure way of making people rich through disciplined, focused , regular (monthly in most cases) investments. Investment can be made in different avenues depending on person's risk appetite but the using power of compounding, its certain that benefits can be reaped.

Reading: 
Who ever want to be knowledgeable in focused area or various subjects, can start doing systematic investment. Yes!! Systematic investment of their time. It is a slow but sure way towards knowledge acquisition. Even though its difficult to measure the knowledge progression quantitatively, qualitative progress is typically reflected in behavior, personality and confidence levels.

Health: 
Two aspects of health needs to be inspected in this context. Firstly eating a balanced diet which includes needed proteins, minerals , vitamins and other needed essential nutrients. At least who can afford should try to eat appropriate portions of fruits avilable and possibly reserve one meal a week for fruits.

Second aspect of health is regular exercise. Exercise not just to be viewed as a mechanism to build six pack or zero size body. Lets leave them for our film stars who  ought to look special. For other mortals, exercise is a means of maintaining good health. Through systematic investment in the form morning walks, evening strolls, yoga, participating in some sports as convenient to one, one can build a healthy body that helps when we reach ripe age.

The list can go on but I think I will stop here for now. 

Discipline deserves respect

Right from school days we see different genre of kids, but the ones which are taken for granted are disciplined ones who meticulously work through each assignment, study each chapter, complete homework and records on time every-time, and eventually get good grades at all levels. In contrast there is another genre who do not do any one of the above but either ride on talent or sheer luck and get similar grades. While first kind of kids are taken for granted, the second category are treated
like super stars. Argument againt the disciplined folks we hear is 'if we study every day, finish all assignments anyone can can get good grades'. But the point arguer misses out was its not easy to inculcate that discipline.

I will argue the disciplined folks deserve more respect than they get. First and foremost advantage they bring to the table are they are predictable. Its a lovely trait and are usually easy to deal with as you know what to expect. Second trait is they are good at flawless execution of tasks assigned to them without having to chase them on the outcome. It may be my perception but I have observed them to be more knowledgeable and matured, which is an outcome of their methodical execution of
work. How ever knowledge levels vary from one individual to other constrained by their appetite.

Most importantly, its really difficult to replicate the feats they perform with ease. I know folks in workplace who start their work at 9:30 am sharp day after day. I know a certain person who wear formal clothes to workplace last 13 years without exception. I know folks who meticulous finish task tracking each day and have all the needed numbers at finger tips when ever I need them. (Its a shame some of us ride on them and look good to bosses) I know folks who finish stipulated mandatory training or never miss status reports with out having to remind them. All these folks are ones who deserve more respect than we give them.

Why do we indulge in wrong deeds?

When we were attending a lecture on behavioral skills needed for the organization, one of the participants asked the facilitator-"What ever you are teaching us is commonsense. Why would any one do otherwise?". Facilitator replied - "If that was true we would not have any one who smokes cigarette, knowing the fact that it causes cancer. "  Very much true indeed!!

Extending that analogy in broader terms, people know in general that  wrong deeds have an impact but still indulge in them. Here are few reasons I can think of for this trend

Temptation:  People fail to resist temptation as typically Nishidda karma (unwarranted/barred deeds) have so much tempting to get away.

Group Behavior:  Some bad deeds are performed by person who is innately good natured when he is in a group. This is usually because of mob/sheep mentality. Even though he knows at heart that the act is wrong, he either too timid to complain or too reckless to stop. Ragging in college is one example to this genre.

Delayed Impact: Some acts beget impact albeit late. So person involved either ignores the impact or less worried as its not immediate.

Impact Not Clear: With certain acts the impact is not clearly seen. Person thinks he/she can get away with it. A case of powerful person torturing a poor fellow is an example.

No one is watching: Similar to above scenario, where there is no chance of getting caught in the act. That's why wise people say  ' a good person is judged by what he does when no one is watching'

Ignorance: Some people act by receiving instructions from their bosses with out understanding what they are tasked with.

Fit of Anger: Behind most crimes, anger is one commonality found. Bhagavadgita says - Desire (not fulfilled) leads to anger, anger leads to mental imbalance and mental imbalance leads to destruction.

My Director - K Viswanath

When I am writing this blog, I am doing so with respect for the man, with fear that my limitation of writing skill failing to express his greatness adequately, with happiness that he is born to be Telugu/Indian and chose to make films, with sorrow that he is not directing films these days, with shame that I did not get to watch all the movies directed by him, with honor that I was able to write this about him.

The person in context here is K. Viswanath Sir and he is an accomplished director in Telugu films and also directed few films in hindi. His films may not have earned Box office records unlike today, but his films can be showcased for his exemplary skill in the art of film making. He started directing at a time when films were transforming from meaningful story telling to meaningless hero-centric stories. He could have easily chosen to go with the trend and earned a fortune. He chose otherwise and thus made films that are good enough to inscribe his name in Telugu Cinema in particular and Indian cinema in general.

There was a time when I watched a series of movies that centered around purest form art and with a message that art is for the art's sake and not for fame/money's sake. When I looked up the commonality of these genre of movies, I could easily find K Viswanath in it. He made extra effort to make sure Indian values are embedded in the movies and thus future generations when they watch his movies get benefited and transformed (if they will) from it. Movie is a medium that gets maximum reach and he is one of those few who understood it and its impact on the people. So he chose to make films that have positive impact on people instead of cashing on their emotions in the name of mass appeal. We find our next door character playing lead role in his films and not the fictitious character who can hit truck load of people single handed.

Films like Swati mutyam, Saagara sangamam helped Kamal Hasan increase his image as versatile and genious actor and earned him thousands of fans among telugu speaking audience. Films like Subhalekha, Swayam Krushi and Aapadbandhavudu helped Chiranjeevi prove to critics that he can play role fitting characters perfectly alongside characters that established his mass appeal.  Film Sankarabharanam proved to the world that box office hit need not have glamorous lead characters as this film features a 60 year old man who is passionate about Carnatic music in lead role.  Sankarabharanam released in only one theatre and opened to an empty hall but later reversed norm of that day about the commercial elements in box office. He provided space for lyricists like Veturi, Seetharama satry, writers like Jandhyala, Gollapudi Singers like SP Balasubramainam, actors like Chandramohan to reassert their talent and perform to their mettle.

How difficult would it be to narrate a tale that's centered around  blind man and a dumb girl? Viswanath took up the challenge and we have masterpiece Sirivennela. Who would approve lyrics written by then newbie Mr Seetharama satry which requires a PHD in telugu to comprehend. But because of Viswanath Sir's decision, many telugu speaking were able to pick up many new words in vocabulary through the songs of Sirivennela.

On one hand portraying the Indianness in his movies, he did not hesitate to challenge some of them. But when he does it, they get the cleanliness of his vision and clarity of his thought. One such instance was in movie Saptapadi, he concludes the tale by giving the hand of a married brahmin girl (who got married against her will) to a low caste but high cultured man. He also challenged through movie Maangalyaniki Maro Mudi, why a wife should put up with husband who is evil natured.
Even if I write one paragraph each on movies like Siri Siri Muvva, Subhodayam, Swati Kiranam, Sutradharulu, Srutilayalu,  Swarna Kamalam, Chelleli Kapuram, Kaalam Marindi, Sarada and others,  I would be incomplete in describing him. In hindi he directed movies like Sargam, Kaamchor, Sanjog, Jaag Utha Insan, Eeshwar, Sur Sangam, Shubh Kaamna, Sangeet and Dhanwaan. Winner of numerous awards and above all winner of hearts of movie connoisseurs.

Decision Making

Decision making is one key skill that differentiates winners from others. Its not just business decisions that are difficult to make but personal ones are equally hard. Here is some analysis on the aspect

Timely: Decision is best taken when made in timely manner. Delayed decisions can hand us misery of missed opportunities and failure.

Firm: Once a decision has been taken, one must be firm on it. Half-hearted decisions do not really lead the path to success.

Emotions: More often than not emotions come in the way of decision making. They tamper with the objectivity of the decision and thus can make it difficult to see the obvious logical choice. Decisions in personal life are hugely impacted by emotions.

Fear Factor: Some decisions involve taking a stride towards uncertain path with uncertainty around outcomes. Change from status quo induces fear and can introduce roadblock to decision making.

Comfort zone: Some times one has to move away from comfort zone and put some efforts in a direction that they are not used to. This can also be one of the reasons for decision paralysis.

Data Points: While data points usually help in easing the process of decision making, lack of adequate data points can stumble it. How ever, abundance of data can confuse and overwhelm the person too.

Predictions: Every decision involves maker's ability to visualize and predict future. If one errs in the vision its impacts gets cascaded to the decision.

Skill: Is the person skilled enough to make a decision is a major factor as well. Its sometimes imparted through education and experience provided .

Peer Pressure/Sheep Mentality: Out of peer pressure or a general sheep mentality of going with the general practice can influence the decisions. Its not uncommon to see XII class student deciding to join medicine because his/her buddies are doing it.